Humanlike robots: state of the art and challenges

Abstract

Humans have always sought to mimic the appearance, mobility, functionality, intelligent operation, and thinking process of biological creatures. In recent years, significant advances have been made in making sophisticated biologically inspired systems. Using these advances, scientists and engineers are increasingly reverse engineering many animals' capabilities. Progress in artificial intelligence, artificial vision, and many other biomimetic related fields are leading to many benefits to humankind. The mimicking of humans is the ultimate and most challenging goal of developing biologically inspired technologies. Lifelike robots that appear and function like humans are becoming increasingly an engineering reality. The use of biomimetic technologies are enabling the possibility of making realistically looking and operating robots. New actuators, sensors and software control algorithms are being developed to support the mobility and the operation in the vicinity and in cooperation with humans. The accelerated pace of the advances in biomimetics seems to make inevitable the development of such machines as our household appliance or even companion. This paper covers the current state-of-the-art and challenges to making humanlike robots.